Why Newtown? Why Columbine? Why UVA? Do You Really want to know?

All the pundits, all the blogs, all the Internet Authors are saying the same thing, asking the same question. Why do things like the Newtown Massacre happen? All these people who are so authoritative on so many different subjects have the same complaint. They each have some personal dog in the controversies surrounding guns, mental health, school administration, and, oh, yeh, religion. But none of these people have the courage to point out why these things happen in an otherwise civil society. What they fail to recognize is that our society isn't so civil and the why is right there in the mirror every time one of us looks in it.

I know most readers will think I am being too simplistic but people who run stop signs are the reason why we have mass killings. People who fail to require their law enforcement to strictly enforce traffic laws are part of the reason why. Policemen who would rather pick up a kid for smoking pot than ticket a stop sign infraction are the reason why. Authorities that spend taxpayers time, money and effort on politically correct actions rather than on public security are the reason why.

Pain killers bring about mass killers. We all know about Pill Mills. They have become so popular that some communities have more Pain Clinics than they do Doctor's Clinics or hospitals. We all know many of these pain people are simply drug pushers. We all know they are protected by those who produce pharmaceuticals. We all know they exist but we look the other way. And we continue to allow pharmaceutical firms to produce millions of medications attacking symptoms and very few that cure. Our attitudes and tolerances about a broken health care system is the reason why we have a failure to control our mentally ill.

Many of us go to church or synagogue or whatever house of worship we worship and cry out to our God for help while we go right home and forget that God helps those who help themselves. I know a lot about most of the Gods we worship and none of them would put up with the conditions we allow in our society. We make exorbitant tithes while failing to help our nearest, poorest neighbor. Homeless people live within sight of the ungodly huge mansions we build and call churches. Religions have been deeply involved in massacres throughout history. Maybe we need to be more of a congregation and less of a church. Even our reliance on religion helps explain why our children are at risk in their schools.

Last, here, but not least, are the Guns. It isn't the guns that kill and they don't provide the why. It isn't the law abiding, civilly enclined people who kill even if they have guns. No, it is those who are mentally deranged or those who defy law or those who could care less about society that commit the atrocities. The one thing I will say about guns is that we as a nation have allowed guns to be too much a part of our every day life. They are meant to be used when useful and only then. Guns do allow the less gifted, the less talented, the less capable to affect life far beyond their meager existences. As a civil society we need to become more aware of how guns have become a greater portion of our experience than seems necessary. But it is all of us who condone the society that breeds such evil. And we are the reason why.